Child of Lasan
by LothCat
Summary: A collection of one-shots set after Dying Breed, an AU with Lasat!Ezra. These likely won't make sense if you don't read Dying Breed first.
1. Chapter 1

Hera patted Chopper's dome, telling him to watch the controls for just a minute and monitor incoming transmissions while she fetched some caf. Normally she'd just ask someone else, but Zeb and Kanan had taken the Phantom on a short supply run and Sabine was teaching Ezra. It shouldn't take too long to make some fresh and then go back to taking care of things.

The machine was about halfway done when Sabine made her way into the galley, Ezra riding on her back.

"Tea, oh please tell me we're not out of tea. Next time I need to remember the hot drinks before I start an hour long lesson in shyriiwook." Sabine lamented, sounding hoarse. From behind her head Ezra just giggled, and then let out a fairly impressive roar.

"I think there's still a little left, enough for a cup or two." Hera smiled, stepping back so Sabine could get to the food storage to look for her tea.

Sabine found the tea container, shaking it and eyeing how much was left before starting the hot water. "I forget sometimes that his vocal cords are a lot more suited for those languages. I keep thinking he'll need a break first."

"Nuh-uh." Ezra bit at the back of her hair, tugging at the brightly dyed strands with a low growl.

"Oh no, I'm sitting down with my tea. Go see if you can beat your time on the obstacle course." Sabine shrugged, crouching some so Ezra could scramble off her back.

Ezra looked like he wanted to protest a moment then his ears flicked, tips dipping as he nodded and took off.

"You're really good with him." Hera observed, as the machine dinged to let her know her caf was done.

"I was an instructor at the Imperial Academy for a while. It's nice to teach when I can choose to teach whatever I want." Sabine added a generous amount of sweetener to her tea before taking a slow sip.

"I'd wondered."Hera retrieved her caf, starting back towards the cockpit and not minding that Sabine started to follow. "Language instructor?"

"That and some shooting. Would you want to teach him any Ryl? I understand more than I can speak." Sabine took a seat in the copilot's chair, sipping her tea slowly. It was adjusted up for Kanan's tall frame and only the toes of her boots touched the floor. It didn't look like it bothered her any.

"I don't know." Hera's lekku twitched as she thought about it, patting Chopper and letting him know she could take back over as she settled into her chair. "Most twi'lek speak at least a little Basic and I don't know how likely it is he's going to encounter it."

"Couldn't hurt, he's still young enough he's picking up languages easily and… wait, do that again?" Sabine focused her attention on Hera, learning forward some.

"Do what again?" Hera glanced down at the controls, she hadn't even really done anything.

"No, when you were thinking before, how you moved your lekku." Sabine waved a free hand to indicate the back of Hera's head.

"How I? Like this?" Hera repeated the movements. It was second nature at this point to include the non-verbal components when she talked, and one of the reasons Ryl was difficult for outsiders to manage. A great deal of the time the movements acted like inflection and could change the entire meaning of a phrase from straightforward, to sarcastic, to playful. The movements were thoughtful ones, 'I don't know' meaning that she was thinking it over, not dismissing it.

"Just like that. So that's where he gets it." Sabine looked surprised and pleased at that, taking another sip of tea.

"You've lost me. Who gets what?" Hera asked.

"Ezra. When he talks and gets excited he moves his ears like he's trying to mimic your lekku." Sabine grinned. "I thought he was just twitchy."

"Are you sure that's what he's trying to do?" Hera didn't bother to hide her skepticism. "Zeb moves his ears all the time."

"Pretty sure. It's a different sort of movement. " Sabine held one hand up to make a pointed Lasat ear over her own. "When Zeb's thinking over a question he tilts his ear back like this. And when Ezra's doing it he flicks them like this." Sabine mimicked both movements.

"He could have picked that up anywhere though." Hera protested, and tried to squash the hopeful feeling that Sabine was right. Sometimes it felt like while she knew Ezra liked her, he didn't want anything from her. He pestered Kanan endlessly with questions about the Jedi, even if they were still on a child's level of understanding. 'Could blank be a Jedi?' had lasted for three days before Kanan had declared that question off limits, with the blank ranging from everything from loth-cats to clouds. Ezra had gotten over his last few traces of shyness with Zeb once it finally clicked with him that he finally had someone big and tough enough to wrestle and play-fight with who didn't care if he bit and clawed. Lasat fur seemed designed to protect against flailing kits and Zeb was patient with him. Hera also wouldn't have been surprised if a good bit of hand-to-hand techniques weren't being snuck in along with the play. Sabine was the one Ezra always defaulted to first for showing off how he was improving with his blasters and so far he didn't show any sign of getting bored with the language lessons.

Hera though? The few times she'd tried to explain how the ship flew she lost his interest almost immediately and she wasn't sure if the fault there was with her instructions or if Ezra just wasn't interested in flying. Not everyone was, and she tried not to take it personally, but if she was being honest with herself it was a small disappointment.

"Maybe I can try teaching him a few words and phrases." Hera finally relented "Though I don't seem to have the knack for it like you do. If he's being stubborn about going to sleep all I have to do is start explaining hyperdrive functionality readouts and he's out like a light."

"Hmm, let me take a wild guess, you were the kind of kid who grabbed up every scrap of mechanical knowledge you could get your hands on years before you ever saw a ship closer than a flash in the sky?" Sabine smiled, leaning back with her empty tea cup held loosely. If her throat was still sore from the shyriiwook lesson she gave no sign of it.

"That was me." Hera didn't see any reason to deny it.

"Some kids are like that, they love collecting knowledge just for the fun of it. And some aren't, like Ezra. Not that he's not smart, but unless he sees a reason for learning something it's an uphill fight the whole way trying to get him to pay attention." Sabine waved a hand at the controls "Why should he learn hyperdrive functionality readouts? It's useless trivia."

"Being able to fly the ship without it exploding isn't useless trivia." Hera arched one tattooed eyebrow and quirked a lekku.

"And how often do you let him fly the ship?" Sabine questioned, then shook her head slightly, answering her own rhetorical question. "Never, I'm guessing he's not even supposed to touch the controls. Which is smart, he's just a kit. But right now readouts matter as much as… as the average precipitation reports on Kessel."

"So you're saying I need to start small, with something he can do." Hera's lekku twitched as she went over possibilities. "A speeder bike maybe. If he sat in front of someone he could get a better idea for how it works, but I could keep him from crashing into anything."

"Sounds perfect. Next time we're on a planet with lots of flat space to ride then, you can even borrow my speeder for it." Sabine offered.

"I didn't say I would be…. I did say that, didn't I?" Hera smiled, shaking her head slightly. "Alright, next time then. How does it ride?"

"Steady at low speeds, push it and there's an output flux that pulls it to the right that I haven't been able to pinpoint yet and it's not a big enough deal to strip the whole bike apart to try and find it." Sabine shrugged a little.

"Did you check the secondary relays? They'd only kick in with the higher demand and they're trickier to monitor." Hera questioned.

"I ran a basic diagnostic, but…" Sabine paused as Ezra burst into the cockpit, obviously excited.

"Can I help unload? Huh?" Ezra quirked his ears, looking pleadingly at them both and with a start Hera could see it, the way another twi'lek would hold their lekku. It wasn't obvious enough to actually work for going along with speaking Ryl, but… he was trying.

"We'll see. They have to get back first… and there's the transmission." Hera smiled as she pushed the button to open up communications with the Phantom, Kanan letting them know they were coming in to dock.

"Come on, kit. You can show off how good you are at singing those wookie drinking songs while they unload. I'm sure they'll love it." Sabine stood up to start herding Ezra out of the cockpit.

"Drinking songs? I thought this was about teaching useful skills." Hera chuckled.

"Entertaining everyone else is a useful skill." Sabine shot back, amused.

"You say entertaining…. I say…" Hera trailed off, not sure how to best say 'annoying'.

"Exactly."


	2. Chapter 2

Author Note - Warning for some disturbing content talked about by the characters when discussing the Fall of Lasan. Implied off-screen deaths. Description of panic attacks and flashbacks.

"You said before that you were an instructor at the Imperial academy at Mandalor." Hera started, choosing her words carefully. It was bound to be a sensitive subject, but while her own research could tell her when Sabine had left, it couldn't tell her why.

"I was." Sabine had several of her armor pieces off and on a crate while she sanded at scuffed place in the paint. New paint sat nearby, waiting to be applied. Hera found that Sabine tended to touch up or change the designs painted on her armor on a regular basis, and if she noticed more blue mixed in with the purple stripes Hera wasn't going to say anything.

"Why did you leave?"Hera figured that Sabine would appreciate if she didn't dance around the subject.

Sabine frowned a little, scouring more firmly at a scorch mark. "Short version or long version?"

"I don't have anywhere to go." Hera pointed out.

"For a long time it wasn't so bad. It was sometimes tough on the kids, but you have to be tough if you want them to survive out in the galaxy, nothing that ever stuck out to me as out of line." Sabine ran a finger over where she had been sanding and then moved to a different spot.

Hera made a soft agreeing sound, not wanting to interrupt.

"The Empire had a program for the best and brightest, someone would come out to evaluate them and they'd be taken away for additional training on one of the Core academies. It didn't happen that often, only three times when I was there. Didn't really think anything about it at first, until I realized I never heard from the kids again. After a few years if they were being given officer training I would think I'd hear something about them being assigned somewhere, nothing. I tried to contact them and couldn't find them. When the third one vanished I did everything I could to track her down. Used official channels, used favors on the official channels, then started tracking down old family contacts and finding out what they knew." Sabine shook her head slightly. "I never could find out where the kids had gone. It's like when they left Mandalor they just stopped existing, never existed at all. All the records vanished from the systems."

Sabine cleaned the paint dust from the plates and picked up the paint, laying out lines on the armor. "I did get the heads up that all my questions hadn't gone unnoticed and I was going to be investigated. I figured it was best to vanish myself." She smiled then, even if it was grim. "I did leave them a nice little present. Next time a kid gets flagged for special training the information I know will go to some friends I trust. Can't be sure they'll be able to convince the kid to leave, but they'll have a chance."

"Do you think you could get the same program into other academies? Mandalor might not be the only place they're looking for people like that." Hera said thoughtfully.

"Get me in without raising suspicion and I can do it." Sabine promised.

Hera nodded, then quirked her lips up in a smile. "I'll look into it. For now I have an entirely different mission planned that I think you're going to enjoy."

* * *

"I could get used to more trips out like this." Sabine passed over a credit and took up the whole basket of fried dough balls liberally coated in sugars and fruit syrups, passing it to Zeb while she tugged off her helmet.

"Hot." Kanan cautioned as he saw a blue furred hand snatching at one of the fried dough balls.

Ezra stuck his tongue out, but carefully tore into it to let it steam and cool down. He was riding on one of Zeb's shoulders for the moment, easily clinging to his armor.

"Come on, burned tongues are an important lesson in patience. You don't need to mother him that hard." Sabine bumped him with her shoulder, reaching to grab one of the snacks herself to take a careful bite.

"I'm not." Kanan crossed his arms, keeping an eye on the crowd. It was marginally a supply run, and mostly because four adults, one kid, and one cranky droid could make even the Ghost seem small if everyone was trapped on it for too long with no chances to stretch their legs. Harvest festivals on agricultural planets means lots of food, lots of strangers, and generally the worst excitement was scaring pickpockets and keeping Ezra from digging in trash bins. It wouldn't be nearly so annoying if Sabine and Zeb backed him up on the no-eating-garbage rule, but with the Lasat digestive system being what it was they both saw no harm in it and free food as a perk. For Kanan it was the principle of the thing, if you could afford not to you didn't eat out of the trash bins. It was an excellent sign you hadn't hit rock bottom yet.

"Whatever you say." Sabine teased lightly.

Zeb grabbed a handful of the sticky treats when Sabine took the basket back to hold it, then he paused. "What's going on up there?" He looked off to where a stage was set up. There had been a few bands earlier, but it had been empty for a while now.

Kanan followed his gaze, frowning. Not empty now, it looked like Imperial officers were taking the stage along with a stormtrooper escort.

"Don't know. There wasn't any intel about any sort of thing planned. The Empire barely pays attention to backwater farm planets like this." Sabine frowned.

"Always coming in where they're not wanted." Zeb grumbled as the officer started talking and people paused to listen, confused.

"Oh this isn't good." Sabine muttered.

"What's going on?" Kanan asked, frowning. It sounded like they were cancelling the festival.

"A few years ago the Empire passed legislation cracking down on unapproved gatherings, especially religious festivals like this one. There's been a lot of pushback, no one's going to take this well. " Sabine shook her head slightly.

"We might want to go." Kanan said reluctantly, as the muttering was turning into shouting and the crowd was growing more agitated. "Somehow I don't think we're going to get much shopping done."

The words were barely out of his mouth when shouting turned to something thrown. From this distance it was hard to say what, but that seemed to set off a chain reaction with everyone surging forward and starting to yell.

"Sure we don't want to join, bust a few bucketheads and let these nice people get back to their festival?" Zeb cracked his knuckles.

"Tempting, but if we end up in trouble on our day off…" Kanan said, earning a sigh and an eyeroll from Zeb.

"Come on, let's find higher ground." Sabine smacked Zeb's arm lightly and he looked at the gathering agitated crowd and nodded.

"Hang tight, kit." Zeb moved to a nearby one story building and cupped his hands. Sabine took the boost up and on top of the building. Her jetpack tended to attract unwanted attention.

Kanan stepped up next to get boosted up onto the roof, landing softly and then immediately getting his wrist grabbed. Sabine hauled him forward and out of the way as Zeb sprung up, scrambling over the edge, Ezra still clinging tight to his back.

Kanan got out his com, signaling the Ghost. "Ghost, going to need a pickup."

There was a long pause, then Hera's voice over the com. "How did you run into enough trouble to need a pickup at a harvest festival?"

"Not our fault, the Empire decided to try and shut things down and started a riot." Kanan grouched. "Just follow our signal and send a pickup before these two start having fun busting heads."

"On my way, try to stay out of trouble until then." Hera cut the communication and Kanan put his com back.

The crowds were getting more agitated and Kanan was glad they'd moved up to one of the flat rooftops. There was a lot more shoving now and people were trying to push their way towards the stage or get out of the area as more stormtroopers were coming in for crowd control which was just making everything worse.

"It doesn't seem fair." Sabine said softly. "This wasn't hurting anything, or anyone."

"That's the point." Zeb said darkly, watching the angry crowd. "You let people think the laws are for them and for the good of everyone then they think they have room to negotiate and argue. If you need to make people obey you without question you teach them not to think too hard on the whys."

"It wasn't like that before." Kanan muttered, and then winced as one of the wooden vendor stalls got knocked into one too many times and started coming down on the other side of the packed courtyard.

"There!" Ezra watched it fall down with a great deal more agitation than any of them, tense on Zeb's shoulder.

"Probably won't be the only thing wrecked, kit. It's turning into a proper riot." Zeb tried to reassure him, but Ezra wasn't having any of it. He dropped off Zeb's shoulder, landing crouched on the roof and then hopping over the edge.

Kanan cursed and grabbed for him, but he was too slow. "What's he doing?"

Ezra darted through the people surprisingly easily, weaving through spaces between people that Kanan would have thought were too tight and he'd get stepped on, before he made it to the collapsed booth. There was a little smoke visible and Kanan tried to remember if it had been one of the hot food booths, if a stove or something was still on then things could get bad fast.

"Should we go after him?" Sabine asked.

"I don't know." Kanan shook his head lightly. "Let's give him a little bit longer to come back."

Ezra had braced himself, grabbing the wooden roof of the booth and hauling at it, trying to lift it. It looked almost comical as small as he was, but Kanan knew he was a lot stronger than he looked. For a long moment nothing happened, and then the roof started to shift up. Ezra hauled at it, straining, and then Kanan could make out more smoke, and someone on the inside of the booth pushing too.

Two kids scrambled out from inside the booth as soon as the crack was high enough, an adult inching out, still holding the roof braced. As soon as she was clear both she and Ezra dropped it back down. It happened fast enough that by the time Kanan realized what Ezra was trying to do, it was already almost done.

"I didn't even see that…" Zeb sounded thoughtful. "Now, good job, kit, and get back here before something else goes wrong."

"Too late, look." Sabine pointed and Kanan frowned. Riot troopers were headed their way, visible from their vantage point.

"Of course. If violence doesn't work, get more violent." Kanan spoke, trying to sound calm while inwardly he was silently urging Ezra to stay put and stay out of the way until the riot troopers had cleared the area. At this point going after him would attract just as much unwanted attention, it was better just to hope Ezra stayed close with his new friends a little longer.

Kanan knew better than to trust in luck, Ezra saw the stormtroopers closing in and seemed to suddenly realize how far he was from his safe perch with everyone else. Ignoring the bellowed orders for people to clear out and head to their homes he tried to make his way through the crowd to the other side of the courtyard where everyone else was.

He almost made it too and Kanan's heart was in his throat watching as one of the troopers grabbed him, throwing him down and bringing down the stun stick. He was fairly sure he shouted, not drawing attention gone out the window as he started to jump down to the courtyard. By the time he got over the edge and landed Zeb had already thrown himself into the fray with a roar of pure rage.

Kanan left the stormtroopers to Zeb, he seemed to still be able to focus on just hitting people in white armor instead of lashing out indiscriminately and Kanan wasn't going to worry about that when he had Ezra to get to before he got trampled or worse. He pushed and shoved his way until he could crouch down, hauling Ezra up into his arms. He was limp, but a quick feel of his pulse confirmed he was only stunned.

Kanan shifted to hold him a little easier, looking around for the others. Zeb still seemed to be determined to make sure the riot troopers paid for their transgressions and Sabine had his back, blasters out and making sure no one attacked him from behind. She nodded to Kanan when she noticed him looking, a quick bob of her helmet to let him know she saw that Ezra was secure.

"Some festival, huh?" Sabine's voice came over the com.

"You could say that." It took a little juggling for Kanan to get the com up, Ezra tucked against his chest. "Our ride should be here soon, if you two are done."

"Just about." Sabine sounded amused even over the com. It looked like the riot troopers were falling back to protect the stage but a few still seemed to think they could take Zeb. They were wrong.

Sabine waited until he knocked out the last nearby trooper before moving in front of him before he could start towards the stage. Zeb started to aim a punch and then stopped, obviously recognizing the distinctively painted armor.

Kanan switched the com to try the Phantom. "When's that pickup coming?"

"Be there in two." Hera answered immediately.

"The sooner the better." Kanan didn't want anything else going wrong and he made his way to where Sabine and Zeb were. Zeb was trembling, breathing hard and Sabine was saying something in Lasani.

"Ride should be here in two shakes. And don't worry big guy, Ezra's fine. Just stunned." Kanan said, trying to sound positive. He wasn't expecting Zeb to startle badly and Sabine to try and throw herself between them with a startled curse.

"No! Not a good time, it's…" Sabine tried to motion him back but Zeb pushed her aside like she didn't weigh anything, staring down at Ezra.

Zeb looked like he'd seen a ghost, total shock and then he started backing away slowly, stumbling a little, like he didn't even see them anymore.

"Zeb?" Kanan asked cautiously. Zeb didn't even twitch.

Sabine cursed quietly, getting something out of a pouch and darting in closer, stabbing it into Zeb's upper arm before he could react.

"That ride better be here really soon because we have about five minutes before the tranquilizer kicks in and he's going down like a load of bricks." Sabine warned.

"You drugged him? Why did you do that? What's going on?" Kanan felt like he was missing something big.

"It'll be easier to explain back on the ship, but believe me this is the best way. Before I found a good tranquilizer I once spent nearly three days tracking him waiting for him to tire himself out." Sabine sounded resigned.

Kanan tried to think of a reply to that but he was saved by the Phantom's arrival.

It took both of them to herd Zeb into the shuttle, he still didn't seem quite with it but he was a great deal calmer and Sabine was able to take her helmet off and convince him to lay down before he passed out. Kanan just took a seat, still holding Ezra in his arms and wondering how the day had gone so wrong so fast.

* * *

"So who's going to be the first to explain why a simple trip to visit a festival ended with two unconscious Lasat?" Hera crouched to take Ezra's pulse the same way Kanan had. She had landed the Phantom beside the Ghost instead of docking, to make it easier to get a groggy Zeb inside when he woke.

Kanan sighed, going back over the events. The announcement, not their fault. The riots, not their fault. Ezra getting separated to save people from a collapsed building, maybe a tiny bit their fault. The riot trooper stunning Ezra, not their fault. When he got to the part about Zeb going on the attack he looked to Sabine to pick up the story.

"Zeb doesn't like the idea of Ezra getting hurt, obviously, but… how much do you know about the war against Lasan?" Sabine asked, surprising them.

"Next to nothing." Hera admitted, brushing some of Ezra's hair back. "Just that the Empire attacked them and wiped most of the population out."

"It was a little more involved than that. Lasan had impressive defenses and the war lasted surprisingly long, even with the Empire outnumbering them so badly. Then the Empire decided to test out their new disruptor technology. It had been developed during the Clone Wars to take out droid-piloted ships, fry the systems, but leave organic matter unharmed. It didn't work quite as planned." Sabine paused then, looking at where Zeb lay unconscious on the floor of the Phantom and frowning.

"I got all of this second hand, but everyone was there. They tended the ion disruptors against the Lasat's technology, and the Lasat themselves. It short circuits electrical systems. There was a small chance it would kill the target, the theory was it caused a fatal arrhythmia, those were the lucky ones. If it didn't kill the target outright it destroyed all higher and mid brain function, leaving only the brain stem intact." Sabine sounded detached, like she was trying not to think too hard about it.

"They just dropped dead with no marks then?" Hera sounded horrified.

"Worse, they lived. They seemed stunned, unconscious, still breathing and no marks on them, but there was no recovery." Sabine shook her head slightly.

"How is that…?" Kanan started to ask, thinking of some of the more gruesome deaths he had witnessed, when Hera interrupted.

"They forced them to kill their own people." Hera said grimly, and Sabine nodded.

"The Lasat have a warrior culture, they've seen plenty of ways you can kill another being. But your companion drops down beside you and they're still alive, what do you do? Leave them for the enemy? Try and bring them back? Kill them yourself? They brought them back at first, just a few and then so many more. They tried to find any sort of a cure, and there was nothing. It was bad enough when it was just the military, but once they started using the disruptors against civilians it was chaos." Sabine sighed, pausing to swallow.

"I was just starting out, looking for some easy smuggling jobs to get my feet wet and got a tip that things were heating up on Lasan. Usually war zones like that there's always people willing to pay to get out safely and that seemed a win. By the time I got there it was over except for the clean up. I found a few survivors, including Zeb. I got them all out." Sabine stopped to glance at Hera. "I didn't charge any of them."

"I don't think I'd ever suspect you of that." Hera said softly, and after a moment Sabine continued.

"I did get to see the effects first hand. One Lasat… it was his younger brother and he didn't want to leave him. He was convinced he could find a medical facility that would help him. What can you say to that? I don't know what happened to him after I dropped him off somewhere relative safe. Since then… it's only happened a few times, but if something happens that looks too much like Lasan during the war Zeb disassociates and just wants to get away. The first time it was because the ion disruptors had a specific explosion pattern and one of my bombs accidentally mimicked it."Sabine rubbed over her forehead, pushing her short hair back.

"When were either of you planning to say something about this?" Kanan couldn't help but ask, which earned him a glare.

"Right after you share a few of the things that give you nightmares and might cause you to react badly during a fight." Sabine shot back and Kanan flinched.

"That's not the same, I…" Kanan started, and then Hera held up a hand.

"Enough. The important thing is that we know now and we can try and prevent it in the future. I'm going to assume seeing Ezra get knocked unconscious like that was what caused it this time? With luck that's not going to happen anytime soon. Is there anything we need to do when he wakes up?"Hera asked and Kanan shut up, letting her take charge. She was the one who was better at dealing with people, at least the people they needed to continue working with indefinitely.

"Yeah, He'll be groggy when he wakes up but he should know what's going on. He hates being pitied, but…" Sabine shrugged a little, sighing. "I don't know. He might want some space, he might want to pretend it didn't happen. We'll just wait and see."

Kanan was glad when the awkward silence that followed was broken by a soft whimper as Ezra shifted, scrunching up his face and his ears pressing back.

"Those sticks give a nasty stun headache." Kanan kept his voice low, the only good thing was that they passed quickly. Of course if you could take painkillers they didn't do much good because by the time they'd be kicking in the headache would be going away on its own.

"I can get him some ice." Hera lowered her voice to match his, but Kanan shook his head.

"You hold him, I'll get it." He stood so he could gently pass Ezra over into Hera's arms.

* * *

Kanan settled the cold pack gently onto Ezra's head. He'd woken up enough to cling to Hera, his face buried against her shoulder to block out any light.

"There we go, you'll feel better in a few minutes." Kanan spoke quietly, setting a hand on Ezra's back. He was glad Ezra was unconscious for the discussion. There were some dark things about the universe that Ezra would find out about no matter what in time, but if he could spare him a few of atrocities until he was older he would.

Ezra mumbled something and Kanan crouched down. "What was that?"

Ezra pulled his face away from Hera's shoulder enough to speak. "Are you mad?"

"What? Why would I be mad?" Kanan remembered to keep his voice quiet just in time.

"I ran off and got hurt, Zeb too." Ezra muttered, looking guilty.

"I'm not mad. I didn't like that you got hurt, but…" Kanan cast his gaze around, looking for help. Thankfully Sabine came closer, joining him in crouching down to Ezra's level.

"You were trying to help people and we're not going to be mad at you for that. We should have had your back." Sabine said, and Kanan nodded.

"I should have trusted you. I know you're not going to run off like that for no reason." Kanan felt guilty about that. Ezra was still impulsive yes, but he wouldn't have done something like that just for fun. He should have known Ezra had a good reason for taking off in a dangerous situation.

"See? No one's mad. And Zeb getting knocked out was the Empire's fault, not yours. Don't blame yourself." Hera's voice was soothing and Ezra finally started to relax. "Want to sit with him until he wakes up too?"

Ezra nodded, and from how much better he was looking the stun headache had to be wearing off. Kanan wasn't an expert, but seeing Ezra alive and well didn't seem like it could possibly hurt Zeb's mental state at this point.

Sabine looked thoughtful, then she nodded, offering Ezra her hand. He took it, sliding easily off Hera's lap. He moved without any trace of pain and Kanan was grateful for that. It didn't look like Ezra had gotten hurt besides getting stunned.

Hera stood up after a moment "I don't think he needs all of us hovering around though."

Kanan nodded, stepping over to give Ezra a careful hair-ruffle before he started out. "If you need anything, just use the coms."

* * *

Sabine sat with Ezra, keeping him distracted with conversation until Zeb finally started to stir. She breathed a sigh of relief and kept talking, reaching out to rub over his arm, making sure it was the one she hadn't stabbed with the tranq. She kept petting through the fur as Zeb blinked before turning to try and focus on them, looking groggy and confused.

"What happened?" Zeb managed, only slurring the words a little. The tranquilizer would take time to work its way out of his system.

"The Empire." Ezra said solemnly and Sabine couldn't help barking a laugh.

"The kit's got the right of it." Sabine said, keeping up the petting as Zeb tensed a little, then hauled himself up to sit. Even as foggy as he was he was staring at Ezra in a way that made Sabine wonder if maybe it was a little too much too soon and this had been a bad idea.

Then Zeb reached out, wrapping his arm around Ezra and tugging him into a hug. Ezra squeaked a little in surprise, but then he was throwing his arms around him just as enthusiastically.

Sabine breathed a sigh of relief. Zeb was going to be just fine.


	3. Chapter 3

Notes:

Small warning for non-graphic descriptions of blood. No serious injury.

Unlike previous short stories, this takes place Pre-Zeb and Sabine in the timeline.

* * *

"Do you think he's so fascinated because he likes seeing his nemesis in pieces, or because he's worried about him?" Kanan handed Hera a spanner as he watched Ezra. Ezra was staring intently at the open droid as Hera worked on him.

"Not sure. Maybe he's just never seen a droid in pieces before?" Hera took the spanner from him and reached back inside Chopper.

"Could be. It is always kind of cool to watch when something minor blows his mind." Kanan reached out to ruffle Ezra's little crest of hair affectionately as Ezra nudged into the touch with a little meepy sound.

"Oh like you didn't spend the first dozen years of life gawking at every new thing." Hera gently teased as she kept working. It wasn't long before she was starting to put Chopper back together, fitting the last panel into place and then frowning. "One of the screws is missing."

"Maybe it rolled off?" Kanan bent down to glance under the work table. They all had orange paint on them, so the lost screw should be easy to see. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Ezra reaching for the remaining screws and start to bring it to his mouth. Kanan straightened up quickly. "Hey! No no no." He reached to tug the hand with the screw away from Ezra's mouth.

"I think we just found out what happened to the missing screw." Hera said dryly, plucking the screw out of Ezra's grip to start putting the panel back on with just the three screws to hold it in place. Kanan doubted Chopper was going to be happy about that.

"At least it'll turn up eventually? Unless he can digest metal, and I somehow doubt that." Kanan sighed, letting go of Ezra's hand. He tugged it back to his chest, giving Kanan a hurt look. "Yes, I know, I'm the worst, not letting you eat more small objects," Kanan said, rolling his eyes.

"That's one way of looking at it." Hera dusted her hands off and then turned Chopper back on. Ezra flattened his ears back as Chopper whirred and flailed to life again, backing away before he could become a target of Chopper's annoyance.

Chopper was never exactly pleased when it came to having to be shut off for a time, no matter how briefly, and Kanan somehow doubted finding out that Ezra had stolen one of his screws was going to improve his mood any. Kanan decided making his own retreat was the wisest strategy and he left Hera to soothe Chopper's ruffled temper.

* * *

"Hey, what's the matter little guy?" Kanan listened to Ezra sniffle for what had to be the fifth or sixth time in the past half-hour."Don't tell me you're getting sick." They'd been lucky so far, but Kanan knew it was bound to happen sooner or later. Ezra looked up from playing with his toy, sniffing again and rubbing at his stubby flat nose with the back of his hand.

Kanan got up to search out some sort of tissues so Ezra wasn't just wiping boogers on whatever happened to be closest, crouching down as Ezra sneezed and then winced, rubbing at his nose again. Hopefully it would just be a small cold or something.

"Does your throat hurt?" Kanan asked, crouching down and waiting for Ezra to shake his head before starting to scrub the backs of his hands and his face dry. He was getting a little too used to just accepting the various gross cleanup chores that came with taking care of a kid. He did frown when the tissue came away from Ezra's face flecked with small amounts of blood as well as snot.

"Maybe you've got a nosebleed instead? Let me see." Kanan coaxed Ezra's head back, trying to see if he could spot if Ezra had scratched his face somewhere or if the blood had come from inside his nose. Tilting Ezra's head to catch the ship's lighting, even with how Ezra scrunched his face, he still managed to catch a glimpse of something orange. Kanan froze a moment as he turned things over in his head, not exactly pleased with how they were adding up, before scooping Ezra up into his arms. "We're going to go find Hera."

Kanan knocked on Hera's door, glad when it opened almost immediately.

"I found our missing screw." Kanan didn't wait for pleasantries.

"Already? Ezra didn't throw up did he?" Hera glanced at Ezra, visibly concerned. Ezra looked at her in confusion, sniffing again.

"Oh no, he didn't throw up. In fact, he didn't eat it. He shoved it into his nose." Kanan had known joining Hera's crew wouldn't be as glamorous as he might have hoped, but he'd honestly never considered the possibility he'd have to deal with something like this.

"He… oh no." It was Hera's turn to try and peer in Ezra's nose as he scrunched away, squirming and obviously getting fed up with all the manhandling.

"What do we do? Wait for it to come out on its own? Haul him to a med center and let them deal with it?" Kanan asked, honestly not sure what was going to be best. Leaving it in didn't seem to be an option, it had to be uncomfortable and obviously the hard edges had already irritated the sensitive insides of Ezra's nose enough to make him bleed a little.

"The closest med center I'd trust is a day away, and we're supposed to be picking up some supplies. I don't know if my contact would be willing to reschedule…" Hera stopped trying to peer into Ezra's nose, bobbing her head and flicking her lekku as she was obviously torn between Ezra's wellbeing and duty. "Maybe we can get it out ourselves."

"Right, worth trying." Kanan had his doubts, but he didn't want to voice them. "If it doesn't work we can deal with the supplies and then go to the med center. He'll be uncomfortable, but I don't think leaving the screw in his nose a couple days will be dangerous to his health or anything."

Hera nodded, still looking worried "I'd rather get it out if we can though." She petted soothingly over Ezra's hair as the little Lasat sneezed and then flinched with an unhappy sound.

"Yeah, I know kid. We're going to help you out." Kanan reassured him.

* * *

"Hold him still. I can't even see it like this." Kanan tried not to snap, yelling at Hera would be a horrible, awful idea, and it wasn't her fault. Yelling at Ezra would be a little more appropriate since it was all his fault, but it wouldn't accomplish anything.

"Don't you think I'm trying?" Hera sounded just as put out and tensely level voiced, wincing as a flailing blue hand smacked her shoulder.

"Well… I don't know. Try harder." Kanan wasn't even sure how Ezra had gotten the screw into his nose in the first place, as small as his nostrils were. With the bright little glowrod he'd managed to confirm the screw was definitely shoved deep in there and didn't look to be budging anytime soon. Ezra wasn't making any of it easy. His nose hurt, he was upset, and the last thing he wanted was to be held down and have someone attempt to poke their fingers up his nose. So he was doing the only thing he could, cry and flail.

"This isn't working. I'm going to try something else. Don't let him run." Hera warned Kanan before she loosened her grip and shifted to pull Ezra into her lap. This time instead of just trying to hold Ezra down she got him in a full body lock, legs cinched around his and arms pinned, gripping the sides of his head in an attempt to keep him from twisting away. Ezra cried harder, tensing and toes scrabbling against the floor.

"Hurry, I think I've got him, but I don't know for how long." Hera warned Kanan, raising her voice to speak over the sound of an upset Lasat. He didn't need to be told twice, trying to get at the screw with his fingertips while Ezra squalled.

"How is he so strong? He's not even half our size. Are most kids this strong?" Kanan tried to reach the screw. It was in deep and he was afraid of hurting him, or pushing it in deeper. He was even more afraid of trying to get any sort of tool in there, at least his fingers were relatively safe.

"Don't know, strangely enough I haven't tried to hold down too many kids to get objects pulled out of noses." Hera nearly lost her grip as Ezra tried to arch and twist, but she kept his head mostly still.

"Maybe we should just wait and let a medical droid handle it. They can knock him out." Kanan clenched his teeth, trying again to get some sort of grip on the screw.

"You want to put him through all of this and still not get it out?" Hera pointed out.

"No, not really." Kanan realized that there was really only one option. He hoped he wasn't going to hurt him somehow and tried to focus, blocking out the fact Ezra was screaming and crying right in his face. He gave the screw a mental tug, just needing it a little closer… little closer… finally with one more Force tug the screw slid down far enough for him to grab and pull free.

"I got it!" He held it up, backing away. Hera immediately released Ezra and the little Lasat was off like a shot, scrambling away on all fours before he could get his legs under him and run.

Kanan winced as he could still hear the wailing echoing down the hallway. "So how many decades is he going to hate us now?"

"Once he starts feeling better I think he'll forgive us. At least I hope so. It had to be done." Hera didn't look convinced though as she held her hand out for the screw.

Kanan was glad to hand over the filthy bit of metal, looking over his hands. "I'm going to wash up. I just really hope he learned his lesson."

"You and me both" Hera said fervently.

* * *

Kanan didn't go looking for Ezra, as much as he wanted to make sure the kid was ok he knew he'd need some space. He did stay out in the main lounge though, bringing up one of the games on the holotable and challenging Hera to a few rounds. They were fairly well matched to keep it interesting, and he felt like Ezra might not want to knock on one of their rooms if he wanted something. Hera seemed to be thinking along the same lines and he caught her watching the doorways as often as he was.

Finally there was a soft sound from the doorway and they both looked over as one. Ezra looked somewhat the worse for wear, Kanan winced when he saw that it looked like removing the screw had caused a nosebleed after all, but it looked to have stopped on its own.

"Hey there kiddo, feeling a little better now?" Kanan asked softly, turning and holding his arms out hopefully. Ezra didn't need much coaxing, hurrying over to just about fling himself into Kanan's arms.

"How about I get you some clean clothes and a damp rag so we can get you cleaned up?" Hera kept her tone just as gentle and Kanan was glad for her quick thinking. Bath time could be a little stressful and putting Ezra through that after everything seemed cruel. Better to just do a quick cleanup.

Kanan rubbed over Ezra's back as Hera left to get what she needed, not taking long before she was back with the clothing and washing up supplies.

"Come on, this won't take long, I promise. And you'll feel better once you're clean." Kanan helped tug Ezra's dirty clothes off, it looked like he'd done a lot of wiping his nose onto his wrists and then trying to clean them off on his jumpsuit and it was a mess. There wasn't enough blood there to worry him though, he'd had enough nosebleeds before to know they always looked worse than they were.

Hera washed Ezra's hands for him, gently rubbing the fur clean before she picked up a fresh cloth and reached towards his face. Ezra winced and tried to hide against Kanan's chest.

"I promise this isn't going up your nose, I'm not going to hurt you, Ezra. I promise." Hera tried her best to reassure him and slowly Ezra relaxed, letting her dab the crusty blood from around his mouth and on his cheeks. Only once he was clean enough did she tug on his clean clothing.

"No more putting screws in your nose. Or ears. Or mouth. Or anywhere you think a small pointy piece of metal might conceivably fit. Or next time I'm letting Chopper get it back himself." Kanan mock-threatened, finally earning a tired giggle from Ezra.

"At least I think we can safely say this crisis is over for now." Hera made a face at the dirty clothes and balled them up to go in a washer later.

"I hope so." Kanan relaxed a little, Ezra tucked into the crook of his arm and didn't show any signs of wanting to move any time soon. Kanan was content to just let him cling, glad it hadn't taken nearly as long as he feared for Ezra to forgive them. "So, who's move was it again?"

"Yours I think." Hera sat back down across the holo table studying the board and flickering game pieces.

Kanan smiled, gently petting through Ezra's hair before he reached out to make his move. Sure being part of the crew wasn't nearly as glamorous as he thought it might be, but at least it was never boring.


End file.
